Lucius Banda is the most deserving

We have never had a consistent musician in this country that can beat Lucius Chicco Banda. His music has been the most loved even by those that do not love his person due his political choices.

Lucius Banda has suffered a lot. If it was not his music being banned or censored then it was his entourage being denied venues for live performances. He has even suffered jail sentence, merely because he stood for something that 'the powers that be' did not agree with. They had to look for something that would justify his arrest.

Despite such tribulations, he has been popping albums since his inaugural son of a poor man in 1994. In fact it is his body of work that were opening gates to hell for him. When he released Fifteen-Fifteen back in 2012 the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) decided to give Lucius Banda free advertisement by banning his music on their two radio stations, which in turn catapulted the album sales.

His other album ‘LIFE’ awakened the censorship board bull dogs.

All his 20 plus albums have one track that takes after a trademark that Lucius impresses upon in all his albums this far, which in reggae business is known as ‘Dub Reggae Poetry’ styled after the Mutabaruka or Linton Kwesi Johnson productions in this regard.

Now that organisers of the Urban Music People (UMP) awards have unveiled him as the recipient of the 2018 Lifetime Achievement accolade, there is just a lot more than this that Lucius deserves.

If performing for 32 years cannot be consistent then tell me what it is. His music company Zembani which is the stable for his backing band has also been there since 1997. Who can really equal this feat?

This is where many successful and famous local music artists graduated from and now his children are taking over if not complimenting his efforts. He once confessed that he cannot match the musical prowess that is engrossed in his youngest son Mapiri Bakili, long before his elderly brother Jonny also shown the world the musical aspect of his life.

The UMP organisers call Lucius Banda the epitome of music in Malawi and probably the biggest musical act Malawi has ever produced.

What I even found funny was when the UMP organisers were trying to justify why Lucius was chosen, describing the process as a comprehensive analysis by a panel of local music experts. Why did even anyone doubt this?

When we talk of Malawi music, the name Lucius Banda is mentioned with veneration. He has done it all. He has had the best hits. He has had one of the longest surviving musical bands, Zembani. He has also shown us the other side of his music promoting competence when he has managed to bring into the current some big international musical names.

Malawi’s Constitution empowers the President to confer honours on eminent Malawians and other individuals for their dedicated service.

It is called a national system of civilian honours and decorations that established what is known as the Malawi Order of National Achievement.

At least late President Bingu wa Mutharika has ever used this facility to honour musicians including Ethel Kamwendo Banda who got a Senior Achiever award. 

At the time where all was rosy between Mutharika and his Vice Joyce Banda he also ushered in the award of the Principal Achiever to Assistant Superintendent Gray John Stewart Mtila who happens to be Joyce Banda's dad.

Another Grand Achiever is late Mr. Michael Fredrick Paul Sauka, the composer for our National Anthem.

In 2009 Mutharika decorated 15 fellow politician only to improve the following year as the Late Evison Matafale got an Achiever of the Malawi Order of National Achievement alongside another fallen musical giant the Late Saleta Phiri. This was also out of 15 names.

In 2011, things apparently improved as Mzuzu Stadium was set ablaze when President Mutharika determined that eight musicians out of 22 eminent Malawians and a Japanese national, both living and departed, be honoured.

This is the time that Wambali Mkandawire. late Allan Namoko and  Frank Vincent Ndiche Mwarare and Joseph Nkasa each got a Principal Achiever accolade.

It is therefore clear that its politics that has left out Lucius Banda in most of such honour that he deserves.